More but shorter trips, resulting in fewer overnight stays, strengthening Greeces brand in major Western European markets with a corresponding increase in the countrys tourism revenues, growth of cruises, gradual improvement in seasonality, and an increase in tourism figures in Attica and Athens.
These are the main characteristics of Greek tourism as shaped in recent years, from 2019 to today, reflected in the key figures of the sector in the Annual Tourism Report 2024, along with the Annual Reports for the 13 Regions prepared by the Institute of the Association of Greek Tourism Enterprises (INSETE). The analysis also includes the significant challenges facing the sector for the future, such as climate change, tax burdens and the irrational Climate Change Fee, as well as the need for clear and effective spatial planning.
Arrivals and revenues up, overnight stays slightly down
Regarding the overall performance of Greek tourism, achieving new highs in arrivals and revenues in 2024 was not accompanied by corresponding performance in overnight stays, which remain below 2019 levels. Specifically, revenues (excluding cruises) based on data from the Bank of Greece increased by 16.5% compared to 2019, from 17.68 billion to 20.59 billion in 2024. Arrivals rose by 14.7% to 35.95 million travelers, while overnight stays decreased slightly by 0.6%, just over 231 million in 2024 compared to 232.5 million in 2019. Similarly, the Average Length of Stay decreased by 13.3% to 6.4 days.
Revenues in Attica doubled compared to 2019
Attica shows the most significant contribution to the overall change in all three indicators, particularly revenues, which nearly double from 2019, reaching over 4.75 billion in 2024 from 2.59 billion six years earlier. Atticas share of the total regional changes in arrivals, revenues, and overnight stays between 2019 and 2024 is also very significant. Specifically, regarding overnight stays, Attica shows an increase of 13.8 million compared to a decrease of 1.4 million for all regions of the country.
By region, apart from Attica, another big winner with large double-digit percentage increases in all three indicators is Epirus although with much smaller absolute numbers while Crete and the Ionian Islands show smaller percentage increases across all three indicators.
Among the other regions, revenues increased despite a decline in overnight stays in the South Aegean, Central Greece, and Western Greece. The North Aegean, despite a drop in visits, shows an increase in overnight stays and revenues. The opposite applies to Eastern Macedonia Thrace, Peloponnese, Thessaly, and Western Macedonia, which show significant decreases in all three indicators. Central Macedonia, despite an increase in visits, records a decrease in overnight stays and revenues.
The trend in overnight stays shows seasonality
Regarding seasonality, it is interesting that while overall overnight stays are practically unchanged with a slight decrease between 2019 and 2024, there is a significant double-digit decrease of 11% in the third quarter of the peak period and a significant increase in the remaining quarters by 13%. This observation affects overall revenue, given that traditionally the third quarter of the peak season also has the highest Average Spending per Overnight Stay.
Strengthened Greece brand
A significant role in the increase of revenues, despite the lag in overnight stays, was played by the change in the market/nationality mix of visitors to Greece, with an increase in the top five (Germany, United Kingdom, USA, France, Italy). These markets have high spending, which, as noted in the report, is most likely due to the improvement of the countrys brand during the pandemic. A notable example is the overall increase in revenues from the USA, including cruises, amounting to 746 million and representing 22% of the total revenue increase of 3.4 billion (including cruises, which are preferred by travelers from across the Atlantic).
Cruise tourism showed very strong growth between 2019 and 2024, likely due to the addition of a large number of direct connections between Athens International Airport and airports in the USA. Cruise revenues, traditionally around 500 million and 499 million in 2019, exceeded 1 billion in 2024, while arrivals increased from 2.7 million travelers in 2019 to 4.7 million in 2024.
The challenges
The report also mentions the challenges the sector faces, both immediately and in the medium to long term.
Climate change, and especially how it affects Greece through extreme heat and severe weather events such as storms like Ianos or Daniel, impacts both demand, with a gradual reduction in seasonality from the third to other quarters, and supply, highlighting the need for investmentsmainly public but also privatein more resilient infrastructure and measures such as insulation, as well as covering increased energy requirements. A related issue is the environmental certification of hotels, where Greece has a lower percentage of certified hotels compared to its competitors.
The need for timely and effective adaptation of education and training to modern trends, emphasizing skills development, is of critical importance, as a key competitive advantage of Greek tourism is its workforce, which, besides providing high-level service, offers the sense of Greek hospitality.
Taxes affecting competitiveness
High VAT and the irrational Climate Change Fee significantly increase prices and thus affect the competitiveness of the Greek hotel product, especially for units with small competitive advantages, putting pressure on operational profitability and preventing spatial and temporal expansion of activities and the promotion of new destinations. Moreover, the majority of tourism sector businesses, primarily small and medium-sized, which form a significant part of the identity and differentiation of the Greek tourism product, have extremely limited access to the banking sector.
Digital transformation, enriching the tourism product, and above all clear, flexible, and effective spatial planning that serves the dual goal of a safe development environment within sustainability frameworks, are also key challenges for the sector, with the application of sustainable development strategies per destination being necessary.
Mr. Ilias Kikilias, General Director of INSETE, stated: In 2024, Greek tourism confirmed its dynamism and pivotal role for the country, while data from the first ten months of 2025 show a continuation of the positive trend. The tourism ecosystem, in order to maintain its strong position and expand its activity in space and time, needs strategy, planning, organization, effective destination governance, and adequate infrastructure. Extending the season and promoting new destinations to absorb part of the demand from the most popular ones also faces the excessive and irrational taxation of the product. By enhancing sustainability and resilience, maintaining the identity of destinations, and differentiating our tourism product, within a long-term and coherent strategy, we can further strengthen the countrys competitiveness, but above all ensure more benefits and prosperity for local communities.
